About West Bend
West Bend is a long-running American housewares name. The original West Bend Aluminum Company was founded in 1911 in West Bend, Wisconsin, and became known for cookware and small electric appliances. The appliance side of the business was sold in 2003 to Focus Products Group, which took the West Bend Housewares name, and the brand today describes itself as having more than 100 years of helping people put food on the table.
The current West Bend lineup covers countertop appliances including coffee makers, electric kettles, slow cookers, rice cookers, air fryers, bread makers, toasters, and popcorn makers, built around four stated principles: easy to use, affordable, dependable, and stylish. In our reviews for Brew Gazette, its 12-cup electric percolator stands out for being specific about its internals: the listing names the stem, basket, and spreader as stainless steel.
Brand website: westbend.com
What West Bend makes
West Bend's range runs wider than the products we review. The lines that earned places in our roundups are marked with a star:
Electric coffee percolators
Classic-style stainless steel percolators with automatic keep-warm and a ready-to-serve light. (featured on Brew Gazette)
Other coffee makers
Countertop coffee makers sold alongside the percolator under the West Bend name.
Electric kettles
Countertop kettles in the brand's everyday-appliance range.
Slow cookers and rice cookers
Set-and-forget cooking appliances for the family kitchen.
Air fryers, toasters, and bread makers
Countertop appliances covering everyday cooking and baking.
Popcorn makers
Countertop popcorn makers in the brand's everyday-appliance range.
Why we recognized West Bend
The Brew Gazette Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose products consistently stand out in our category roundups. West Bend earned it on the strength of the products below, evaluated the same way every product on this site is: checked against the specs, brewing standards and verified buyer reviews, and judged on what matters in the cup.
West Bend products we rated highly
West Bend Electric Percolator Classic Style Coffee Maker, 12-Cup
This is one of our top picks among electric percolators because it tells you what it is made of: the listing names the stem, basket, and spreader as stainless steel. The spreader is a real brewing feature, since it distributes the water arriving from the perk tube across the whole bed instead of letting it drill a channel through the middle. It brews twelve cups, switches to automatic keep-warm, and has a ready-to-serve light that guards against the classic mistake of letting a percolator run past the point where it has finished.
Read our Percolators guide →What earned West Bend the recognition
- Names the stem, basket, and spreader as stainless steel in its own listing, component by component, rather than describing only the housing.
- A spreader that distributes water across the whole coffee bed, a mechanical defence against channelling and the weak-yet-bitter cup it causes.
- Practical electric conveniences done properly: twelve-cup capacity, automatic keep-warm, and a ready-to-serve light.
- A permanent metal basket, so there are no filters or pods to buy.
- A brand name with over a century of history in American housewares, still making everyday countertop appliances.